What Does Leviticus 14:8 Mean in the King James?
And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
You can be clean and still stand outside your tent: the verse separates entry into the camp from return to your home.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks through a sequence: you are washed and clean, and you enter the camp, while your tent remains beyond reach for seven days. Restoration is real before every threshold opens.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that cleansing must restore every form of belonging at once is undone: the man is clean and admitted to the camp while still outside his tent for seven days.
THE ROOT
וְיָשַׁב
ve-yashav
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-b
To sit, dwell, or remain.
“Tarry” is יָשַׁב (yashav, “sit” or “dwell”), a verb of taking a place rather than merely waiting out time. The seven days become a defined dwelling at the camp’s edge: he is among the people while home remains one threshold away.
ALSO GROWS
moshav: Dwelling place or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
The same root can name a place of dwelling, echoing how the man occupies a specific place outside his tent.
yoshev: One who sits or dwells.
יֹשֵׁב
This branch describes a person by where they remain, bringing out the verse’s emphasis on the man’s temporary place.
וְטָהֵר
ve-taher
GROWS FROM
טהר
ṭ-h-r
To be clean or pure.
English “clean” can sound like an endpoint, but this Hebrew word names a real change that does not erase every boundary at once. The man is clean before he returns to his tent, so cleanness and complete return remain distinct stages.
ALSO GROWS
tahor: Clean or pure.
טָהוֹר
This adjective gives the same root’s state of cleanness, the status the man reaches through washing.
tohorah: Cleanness or purity.
טָהֳרָה
This noun names the condition associated with the root, showing how the passage’s act of washing leads into an ongoing state.
THE PATTERN
Cleansing is made visible in the body and opens a path toward restored presence.
Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.THE THREAD
Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.“Was clean” translates וַיִּטְהָר (wayyithar, “and he became clean”), from טהר (ṭ-h-r, “be clean or pure”), the same root as Leviticus’s “clean.” Both verses join washing to cleanness; Leviticus adds the interval between entering the camp and returning to the tent.
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